Existing devices for use in emergency medical response situations, for example defibrillators, often each have their own software applications providing an interface for receiving data from such devices. For example, a defibrillator device may include a physical interface (such as a serial port or Ethernet interface) for connecting the defibrillator with a personal computer. The user must install device application software onto the personal computer, either by download or using physical media provided to the user, for example a DVD-ROM with the device software. This application software enables the exchange of data and, in some cases, control of the medical device by the computing device.
However, distributing device application software in this way requires that the software developer provide separate development efforts based on target hardware and software platforms, for example MS-Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile. Maintenance and upgrades for such software can also be challenging, as it requires redistribution of software and must often be carefully synchronized with vendor-specific upgrades. The makers of such software and devices also often have difficulty tracking which user is using which version of software; furthermore, the fact that a particular version of software was delivered to a user does not always mean that the user installed that particular version.